Call for tender – Editorial services for FEPS recurrent flagship publications

This call for tender was launched on Friday 25 April and closed on Friday 23 May 2025.

FEPS – GENERAL INFORMATION

The Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) is the think tank of the progressive political family at the EU level. Our mission is to develop innovative research, policy advice, training, and debates to inspire and inform socialist and social democratic politics and policies across Europe.

We operate as hub for thinking to facilitate the emergence of progressive answers to the challenges that Europe faces today.

FEPS works in close partnership with its members and partners, forging connections and boosting coherence among stakeholders from the world of politics, academia, and civil society at local, regional, national, European and global levels.

Today, FEPS benefits from a solid network of 76 member organisations. Among these, 40 are full members, 31 have observer status, and 5 are ex-officio members. In addition to this network of organisations that are active in the promotion of progressive values, FEPS also has an extensive network of partners, including renowned universities, scholars, policymakers, and activists.

Our ambition is to undertake intellectual reflection for the benefit of the progressive movement and to promote the founding principles of the EU – freedom, equality, solidarity, democracy, respect of human rights, fundamental freedoms, human dignity, and the rule of law.

PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT TENDER

The purpose of this tender is to select a company and/or a (delegated) individual willing and able to render editorial services for the recurrent flagship publications of the FEPS.

If selected through the present call for tender, FEPS offers the possibility of signing a five-year contract with no exclusivity and no minimum billing amount between September 2025 and September 2030 for providing the following products:

• A magazine produced in print and online (i.e. Progressive Post – https://feps-europe.eu/magazine/)
• A series of connected publications available online (i.e. Thematic Dossiers, Election Analyses, Topical Debates and Book Reviews – https://feps-europe.eu/progressive-post/)
• A Yearbook (i.e. Progressive Yearbook – https://feps-europe.eu/publication/progressive-yearbook-2024)
• The Annual Report of the FEPS (i.e. Activity Report – https://feps-europe.eu/about/).

Any relevant service required for the completion of the listed editorial services (e.g. software licenses, insurance, etc.) is to be included in the budget and dealt with directly by the selected service provider.

MAIN NEEDS AND PLANNING

The indicative average number of publications and production sequence to be subject to the present tendering process is as follows:

“Progressive Post Family” publications (cf. https://progressivepost.eu/):

• Progressive Post Magazine (in print and online): 3 issues per year (Spring edition March/April; Summer edition June/July; Autumn/Winter edition November/December)
• The Progressive Post newsletter: once per week (online). It can be:
  •  A Progressive Page (ca. 24 issues per year)
  • A dossier (ca. 12 issues per year)
  • An election analysis (ca. 10 issues per year, depending on national elections across Europe and, exceptionally, beyond Europe)
  • Book reviews (ca. 6 issues per year)

Progressive Yearbook:

• (in print and online): 1 issue per year (publication in January, months of work: October-January)

Annual FEPS Activity Report:

• (in print and online): 1 issue per year (May)

A non-exhaustive list of tasks and competencies would be the following:

• Participate in the meetings of the FEPS Editorial Board as external “Deputy Editor in Chief of the Progressive Post magazine”
• Collaborate with the FEPS in-house Editor in Chief and Deputy Editor in Chief of the Progressive Post magazine in their editorial tasks
• Provide expert advice on optimising the organic link between FEPS’ core activities on the one hand and published content on the other
• Identify and suggest new topics, angles and/or authors
• Liaise with authors both within and outside of FEPS
• Proceed with content and language editing as well as proofreading
• Finalise articles by identifying titles, leads, quotes and tags
• Manage the visual dimension of articles in compliance with applicable regulations
• Produce content as assigned
• Liaise with graphic designers for the layout of encompassed publications
• Support the maintenance of documentation related to assigned publications (e.g. publication archiving)

The workload may fluctuate. Availability on demand is required.

PARTICIPATION IN THE TENDERING PROCEDURE

Tender Process

FEPS reserves the right to conduct the tender process and select the successful tender.

FEPS is not bound contractually or in any way to a bidder to this request for tender until FEPS and the successful winner have entered a written contract.

The key dates of this call for tender are the following:

1. Deadline for the submission of applications: receive the offer in writing via email by 23/05/2025
2. Candidate(s) selection: 15/06/2025 
3. Start of the contract: as soon as possible once selected.

The offer must include the hourly rate cost VAT. Any other costs or additional fees that may be charged in exceptional situations should be detailed and include applicable conditions (e.g. premium fee for urgency).

Tender documentation

The following documents must be submitted in the application:

• Comprehensive budget overview broken down into different categories to allow a comprehensive understanding of the service costs. Specifically, the price of the offer must be divided into two categories:
• Monthly cost of editorial services for the “Progressive Post Family” related publications
• Annual cost of editorial services for the Progressive Yearbook and FEPS Annual Report

Tender qualitative evaluation criteria

In non-preferential order, the evaluation criteria used to assess the quality of the applications are the following:

Criteria 1: A cost proposal – value for money offered by the applicant.

Criteria 2: Quality of the assurance mechanisms proposed by the tenderer to ensure the production of a high-quality service.

Criteria 3: Proven knowledge of the European Union’s political dynamics and functioning and of the progressive movement at the European level.

Criteria 4: Speed of work, ensuring efficiency is not compromised.

Applicants must be able to work in the English language. French and other EU languages are an asset.

CONTACTS

If the above request is of interest to your company, we invite you to liaise with morgana.cochaux@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Communication and Events Officer) to request further information and submit your application.

All written offers must be submitted to morgana.cochaux@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Communication and Events Officer) and put in copy to johan.robberecht@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Director of Operations) and catherine.dubois@feps-europe.eu (FEPS Head of accountancy).

Offers must be provided in writing via email to be considered.

TERMS OF PAYMENT

Prices must be fixed amounts in Euro.

The amount of VAT must be disclosed on the price offer and invoice. Services and items charged should be broken down as much as possible in the invoices in order to have a comprehensive overview of the project costs.

Costs incurred in preparing and submitting tenders are borne by the tenderers and cannot be reimbursed.

QUALITY ISSUES

In delivering the service, the tenderer shall ensure the highest quality standards, of which FEPS shall be the sole judge.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The Tenderer undertakes that they will not at any time, either before or after the termination of this service, use or disclose or communicate to any person confidential information relating to the affairs of FEPS.

This restriction shall continue to apply after the termination of the service without limit in point of time.

To ensure the independence of the terms of their contract, the winning tenderer will sign a declaration certifying that they have no conflict of interests in relation to the tasks to be undertaken and undertake to inform FEPS’ Director of Operations should this status change.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

FEPS reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, in whole or in part, to advertise for new proposals, to abandon the need for services, and to cancel or amend this call for tender at any time prior to the execution of the written contract.

FEPS reserves the right to waive any formalities in the call for tender process. FEPS may respond to questions or provide information from tenderers and is under no obligation to provide such responses or information to all other tenderers.

By submitting a proposal, the tenderer agrees to:

• FEPS may copy the proposal for the purpose of facilitating the evaluation of the proposal and agrees that such copying will not violate the rights of any third party.
• It will not bring any claim or have any cause of action against FEPS based on any misunderstanding concerning the information provided or concerning FEPS’ failure, neglect or otherwise, to provide the bidder with pertinent information as Intended by this call for tender.

The accomplishment of a tendering procedure imposes no obligation on the FEPS to award the contract.

Should the invitation to tender cover several items or lots, FEPS reserves the right to award a contract for only some of them.

FEPS shall not be liable for any compensation with respect to tenders whose tenders have not been accepted. Nor shall it be so liable if it decides not to award the contract.

CONTRACTING AUTHORITY

Foundation of European Progressive Studies (FEPS)
Avenue des Arts 46
1000 Brussels
EUPF 4 BE0896.230.213
www.feps-europe.eu